Izmir

This provincial capital, and Turkey’s third biggest center, with a population of 2.9 million, is a big-city base for the nearby sites of Ephesus and Pergamum, which are both day-tripping distance. Spreading along the Aegean waterfront, Izmir today is feted as one of Turkey’s most lively metropolitan centers. Its youthful, commercial buzz and modern façade hides a vast history. Izmir was once Smyrna, the most important port town along this coastline from the Roman period up to the end of the Ottoman era. Along with Alexandria in Egypt, it was feted for centuries as a Mediterranean cosmopolitan hub, where Turks, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians all thrived.

A catastrophic fire at the end of the Turkish War for Independence in 1922 wiped out much of Izmir’s historic neighborhoods, but a glimpse of its storied past can still be found in the vast Kemeralti Market district snug in the city core. Here, Ottoman warehouses now house craft workshops, caravanserais are converted to coffee houses, and alleyway stalls are piled high with produce and household goods.